It’s that time of year again—time for you to get mad at us. The Stranger Election Control Board has weighed hearts against feathers, consulted the oracles, and spoken with the pentagram on the floor of our office, appealing to all gods but reason, to arrive at our conclusions. Dozens sought our favor, most of them fools. Guess who? Washington is what happens when a liberal wishes upon a monkey’s paw. Democrats effectively control all three branches of government, and store the state Republican party in a small cage in the basement. Our politicians openly dream of a green utopia with civil rights and robust social programs, but we can’t afford any of that because our tax code is better suited to hiding Nazi gold than funding public school teachers.
You’d think passing the Millionaires Tax would solve these problems and let us finally, finally put our mallets away so we can stop beating the “Find Us More Progressive Revenue” timpani and rest our aching wrists. But that shit is tied up in a legal battle likely headed to the State Supreme Court and a possible repeal initiative. Even if it survives, it won’t be enough. We need solutions; we need chutzpah; we need leaders.
As long as we have a democracy, you can vote for them! Maybe you want someone who will bankroll Israel, or fight for affordable data centers. Perhaps your ideal candidate dreams of ICE. If you do, steer clear of this guide. We’re not interested in fascists, bootlickers, UFC fighters, JD Vance’s three genuine fans, trillionaire sperm donors, or AI dream girls. The national picture is bad. Washington can be okay, maybe.
This primary election we endorsed in every race that touches the City of Seattle. We’re choosing a few important things like, uh, the majority of the State Supreme Court? Those are low-information races and conservative money is flowing in. You better brush up! We’re also picking someone to replace Councilwoman Debora Juarez (again) in Seattle’s District 5. There’s a fuckload of state legislative races, four Congressional seats up for grabs, and we are deciding the fate of the King County Assessor’s office, which is currently under the control of a pervert goblin king on a hot- tub throne. And, oh, should we pay for the library, or let it burn like Alexandria’s?
You can read every endorsement in these pages, or if you’re not one for reading, skip to the end for the cheat sheet for the primary. Just don’t forget to get your ballot in before August 4.
The SECB is Hannah Murphy Winter, Megan Seling, Vivian McCall, Charles Mudede, Nathalie Graham, stand-up comedian Amanda Knox, and Hunter Pauli. The SECB does not endorse in uncontested races, or races we forgot. And we only endorse in races that have just two candidates (which means both will automatically go through to the general) if we feel like it.
FEDERAL
United States Representative
Congressional District 1
Suzan DelBene
Like many right-leaning corporate Democrats, Suzan DelBene lives in a castle made of money. Its walls, ramparts, drawbridges, and boiling pots of oil protect her from barbarian challengers on the left and the right, while she tosses enough cake out the portcullis to prevent a people-powered uprising from seizing her ho-hum, ho-hum dominion.
What truly distinguishes DelBene is her independent wealth. She’s no pedestrian millionaire; She jumped into tech early, and is sitting on upwards of $120 million. She is the richest congressperson in Washington State. Any person living that life exists in a reality-distorting super-dense black hole of privilege. So excuse us for not believing corporate-friendly DelBene will fix the unequal tax system she benefits from. Hating RFK Jr., loving abortion, and fighting a cartoonishly evil AI that denies care to seniors is not enough.
The SECB took a videocall with DelBene, but could have had the same experience if we’d asked a wall where it stood. DelBene is allergic to specifics such as: Name one tax loophole you and your colleagues have closed.
DelBene will do the bare minimum, and we will have to accept that because there isn’t anyone else we can put our faith in. We had the smallest sliver of hope that home care aide and rad-lib Hunter Gordon’s mostly self-funded, take-no-prisoners campaign would be worthy of a protest vote, but he couldn’t explain how he’d advance a single policy priority. Not one.
Until we as a country figure out money in politics, we’ll be voting for the symptoms of it. Vote DelBene.
United States Representative
Congressional District 7
Pramila Jayapal
Pramila Jayapal is one of the most progressive, least compromising people still fighting bog trolls in the miserable, undrained mire that is the US Congress. She’s also the only congressperson we’re endorsing this election that we feel great about.
Jayapal, who led the Congressional Progressive Caucus for six years, can say what other Democrats will not: That Israel is committing a genocide, a stance she has backed up by pushing to end arms exports to the country and signing onto a Congressional letter asking the State Department to investigate Israel’s illegal nuclear weapons arsenal. That not a cent of our tax dollars should go to ICE, and that DHS, a post-9/11 chimera from the War on Terror, should not even exist. That Democrats need to gerrymander Congressional districts until we pass the John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act. That former Seattle Mayors Jenny Durkan and Ed Murray totally suck. (Mayor Katie Wilson? Well, she’s “getting her footing.”)
She only dodged once, when we asked if Congressman Hakeem Jeffries should lead the party. She wouldn’t throw her caucus leader in the mud, but had no problem pushing Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer’s face in it; she’s done it many times.
Jayapal sponsored “Housing Not Handcuffs,” a bill to limit the euphemistic “camping bans” that criminalize homeless people for sleeping outside, and the Trans Bill of Rights to protect gender-nonconforming people from discrimination in healthcare, housing, education, and public accommodations. Every time you drive over the West Seattle Bridge, remember that Jayapal helped secure the funds to repair it.
Even her Republican challenger Nirav Sheth, a retired Lakewood policeman and former intelligence liaison for Customs and Border Patrol who insisted he was not a Republican even though he is running as one, said it was an honor to meet her. At times, he wore an almost reverent expression. He was a joker, but she treated him with respect. Vote Jayapal.
United States Representative
Congressional District 8
Kim Schrier
Say you’re stranded on a desert island. Do you drink hot piss, or drink seawater and die? If you want to survive, it is bottoms up for piss, and for voting Kim Schrier.
With Republicans taking advantage of the gutted Voting Rights Act by redistricting their states David Duke-edly, Democrats will need every vote they can get to #resist this administration until 2028, when they (maybe) take over and restart the process of fumbling the bag.
Not that we can count on Schrier to vote with most Democrats, or even against evil things. She voted for the Laken Riley Act to allow ICE to indefinitely detain undocumented immigrants accused of theft, and other dumb shit, like a bill to sanction the International Criminal Court for targeting Israel for war crimes, a bill allowing the US Attorney General to publish a list of local and state entities that offer cashless bail, a resolution condemning the “horrors” of socialism in “all its forms,” and taking seemingly every opportunity to limit DC’s control of its criminal justice system. She was also one of 21 Democrats to vote to end the government shutdown on February 3rd, just 10 days after Alex Pretti was shot dead in Minneapolis, when the party had a modicum of leverage. Hnnnnnggggg.
And yet everyone else in this race is worse somehow. Her main opponent, Republican Trinh Ha, has a solidly conservative platform for “strong schools,” “smart immigration,” a “people-first economy,” and “learn more.” No thank you.
Schrier is clearly no fan of ours either—she ghosted us! Whatever. Our hands are tied. At least Schrier is pro-universal pre-K, for codifying DACA and the DREAM Act, and she definitely believes in human-caused climate change. Pinch your nose. Drink the piss. Vote Schrier. (Free campaign slogan, btw.)
United States Representative
Congressional District 9
Kshama Sawant
Kshama Sawant has the best chance of unseating incumbent Rep. Adam Smith, the unapologetic AIPAC darling whose weapons industry funding and long pro-war career have made him a pariah in his own district. So many people protested outside his house that Bellevue banned targeted protests outside homes. He’s thick-skinned and loves democracy, you see.
Sawant is an upsetter, and upsetting to everyone she dislikes, which is everyone. She wouldn’t name a single lefty politician she liked. This born hater began her political career by unseating an established Democrat in what everyone thought was a safe seat, and if her campaign can successfully mobilize Smith’s disenchanted constituents she could pull off another coup. Her first priority in Congress is to help pass an arms embargo against Israel. Smith’s is oh, God, anything but that. We’d quote him directly, but he didn’t have the guts to step into the octagon with Sawant.
Also competing for the progressive lane in the primary is Melissa Chaudhry, who lost to Smith by 33 points in 2024. Her campaign this year is in worse shape, raising only $1,500 per FEC filings at the time of the SECB endorsement meeting. Chaudhry only advanced in the 2024 primary because two Republicans split the conservative vote, and with only one Republican running this year, Chaudhry risks splitting the progressive vote in the primary and handing Smith an easy reelection.
Chaudhry also admitted to the SECB that despite running as a Democrat, if elected she would change her party affiliation to the Green Party. She asked us not to reveal this information to the public, but the Stranger Election Control Board will not help a candidate deceive voters on the political allegiance of candidates for public office. We also don’t like being told what to do, or the twisted assumption that the Green Party excites us. She also admitted her website lacked policy on protecting LGBTQ rights because it would alienate Muslim voters who represent an important part of her coalition. Defeating Smith will require a broader coalition than that.
Even Sawant’s liberal detractors can agree she’d make life Hell for Congressional Republicans and the Trump administration if we send her to DC. Smith and his disastrous pro-war stances need to be removed from office before he can do any more damage to both his district and the world. Vote Sawant.
STATE
Legislative District No. 11
State Representative Position No. 1
Ashley Fedan
We’ve endorsed Rep. David Hackney twice and will not be endorsing him again. As he put it, he hasn’t changed, but his views have “become more clear,” a classic thing to say when you have changed or are breaking up with someone. It’s not you, Hackney. Wait, it is you, and we should see other people.
Cops love Hackney. Law enforcement PACs donated to his campaign this cycle. He’s a mixed bag on law and justice. He sponsored bills to eliminate juvenile points and expand second chance options for people sentenced to life or long sentences before their 21st birthday. He’s all for reform, unless those kids are packing heat, in which case he’s down to throw the book at them, sponsoring a failed bill to increase the penalties. He told the Seattle Times in 2024 that the problem with policing in Black and brown communities wasn’t over-policing, but under-policing. With rhetorical judo skills like that, how could anyone pull the wool over his eyes?
Hackney, a former war crimes prosecutor for the United Nations, and 240 other American lawmakers traveled to Israel last September on the invitation of the country’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs. The Israeli government took them on a curated tour of Israel, and he’s telling us, it’s “nuanced” over there, with “good and bad on both sides.” Israel’s targeting of Palestinian civilians was “disproportionate” and a “tragedy,” and he knew they were trying to convince him to think a certain way. But “like most tours, they can’t control everyone you talk to.” The tour did not include Gaza.
First-time candidate and nurse practitioner Ashley Fedan did not wow us, but we’re endorsing her anyway. She isn’t Hackney. She is a landlord, but claims to support rent control, and wants to invest in diversion programs that keep people out of a courtroom instead of punishing them even more. Her union credentials are good, and never in her travel nurse career did she scab. Her family in West Virginia would have thrown her down a mine shaft for that. She also wrote each member of the SECB prescriptions—no, not for the anti-psychotics we needed after seeing the state of this race, but for things like… googly eyes, a knitted chicken named Mr. Cluckers to cuddle, and a reminder to call our parents. A little too personal!
We cannot in good conscience endorse Hackney because he has abdicated the values we endorsed him for in the past. Vote Fedan.
Legislative District No. 32
State Representative Position No. 1
Keith Scully
Keith Scully is an easy pick in this crowded race. He has more political experience than his closest contenders and gave the best answers on transportation, taxes, and affordability. Scully also showed he can dream. He wants to get rid of zoning. Okay, Keith. We’re listening.
Of course, a suburban councilman has his hang-ups. He was concerned that shrooms could become the next fentanyl if we don’t do enough research (Scully, we suggest you do some first). Clearly, he is not in conversation with this district’s senator, shroom lord Jesse Salomon (perhaps a good thing). Like the suburban clowns in the room, he was clueless about sex work. Perhaps he’s not in conversation with his local girls (not a good thing).
Danica Noble, a former consumer protection and antitrust attorney for the state’s Federal Trade Commission office, is his closest competition. She’s raised the most money, and is correct to place the growing intellectual and environmental nightmare posed by AI at the center of our state’s politics. It puts her ahead of techie and, uh, obscure musician Chris Bloomquist—who believes rural people can benefit from data centers by putting solar panels on farms—but not ahead of Scully. He correctly believes we do not have the infrastructure to support data centers without increased energy and social costs. We can trust him to regulate the shit out of them.
Noble also doesn’t have Scully’s practical political experience. She has big ideas and policies that are, for sure, important (challenging the tech oligarchy, regulating AI), and she’s pro-union, but, as she admitted, she’s a novice when it comes to the basic machinery of politics.
We love Scully, his piercing, Frodo Baggins-ass eyes, and his command of concrete solutions. He is pro-transit, pro-density, and most importantly, not like his conservative budget hawk opponent, Will Chen, who did not bother to reply to the SECB’s emails, which we worked hard on. It is unsurprising that the person leaving this seat to challenge Sen. Salomon, Rep. Cindy Ryu, has endorsed him. Vote Scully.
Legislative District No. 32
State Representative Position No. 2
Imraan Siddiqi
When it comes to policy, Rep. Lauren Davis runs circles around her opponent, Imraan Siddiqi. But here is the problem: Though we endorsed Davis multiple times for her platform centering mental health and addiction, she’s changed. She apologized for her votes concerning youth incarceration, and wrote in a Seattle Times op-ed that her “missteps” fueled juvenile violence. She appeared on far-right radio host Ari Hoffman’s program to talk about her conversion experience. “We used to use juvenile detention as a sanction, which wasn’t ideal,” Davis said. “But we never built an alternative, and then we took away the stick.”
When the SECB asked her to explain this, she said she wouldn’t have said that. Then we read the quote and she looked like she was going to cry. Boo hoo. On the subject of wasted water, she had a bad opinion on data centers. She voted against a bill that did nothing more than make sure the social costs of this AI infrastructure are privatized. Her response? She went to Quincy, Washington, and saw the rural people experiencing something of a boom from AI investments. And we, as city people, owe it to the sticks to give them the opportunity to repair their economic woes with a bad fix that has no future. Data centers create construction jobs when they’re built, but leave few in their destructive wake.
So, Siddiqi it is. Obviously, the executive director of Washington’s chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations chapter is great on immigration. For example, over the past two years, his organization has filed lawsuits on behalf of Afghan refugees. One, concerning stalled cases, was successful.
But he’s untested and unspecific. He needs to improve his command of health care, taxes, and affordability. It’s not that he provided poor responses on many of these issues during the interview, but he could not make them concrete. There is no royal road to becoming a master of public policy. It takes work. Time to study up. Vote Siddiqi.
Legislative District No. 32
State Senator
Cindy Ryu
Choosing Rep. Cindy Ryu over Sen. Jesse Salomon was simple. While both are career Shoreline politicians, and moderates, only one is a goofball with libertarian tendencies and a habit of sticking his foot ankle deep into his mouth. A few of our favorites: On redistricting, Salomon said the Republicans have metaphorically picked up a gun and started shooting, so we ought to shoot back at them, with guns. He was evasive on whether he supported rent control, opting to talk about architecture instead of his stance on capping rents (spoiler alert: he’s anti).
Salomon, the Legislature’s leading advocate for psilocybin mushrooms, may be willing to plumb the depths of the human mind on the psychedelic frontier, but somehow a Republican-sponsored bill to force cities to permit corner stores in residential zones was too out there for him. Shoreline is heavily dependent on corporate supermarkets, and deserves a State Senator who can tolerate a sprinkle of urbanism. Ryu didn’t hesitate. She dreams of a moderately dense Washington.
We’ve had our problems with Ryu. She’s a commercial landlord who’s been lukewarm about tenant protections and rent stabilization in the past, but has since voted in favor of those bills in the Legislature. Ryu wouldn’t go so far as to say she’d vote for rent control, but she said she’d consider it. She’d also vote for a bill granting farmworkers collective bargaining rights, a bill Salomon admitted to the SECB he opposed last session after previously ignoring The Stranger’s requests for comment. They were both bad on sex work.
But only one of them sent us a picture of themselves trophy fishing when we asked for a headshot. Guess who? Though we are sad to vote out one of the last true weirdos in state politics, vote Ryu.
Legislative District No. 34
State Representative Position No. 2
Joe Fitzgibbon
We had to endorse House Majority Leader Joe Fitzgibbon because the alternative was someone with no ideas. He’s also good at his job, so we’re happy to keep him around.
Fitzgibbon’s been in the State House for 16 years. As the chair of the Environment & Energy Committee, Fitzgibbon sponsored the Clean Energy Transformation Act that decarbonized our electrical grid, championed our cap-and-trade system with the Climate Commitment Act, and got the low carbon fuel standard through. He helped pass our long-term care insurance program and the payroll tax that pays for it. He backed the capital gains tax. And as the House Majority Leader, he wrote the House’s version of the Millionaires Tax, though his version would’ve ended a B&O tax surcharge on high-earning businesses a year early. It didn’t make the cut.
We’ll need him to stave off austerity cuts for the next few years of deficits. Fitzgibbon will do that by making a sustainable plan for the Millionaires Tax funds and the $3.3 billion surplus from the firefighter and law enforcement pension funds, if the retired first responders don’t win their lawsuit blocking use of the funds, that is. He also floated a Congressional redistricting bill as a test balloon, to see if there’s a political appetite to fight Republican gerrymandering with democratic gerrymandering. We know it’s not healthy for democracy, but conceding to opportunistic fascists on principle won’t save your dignity, your constituents, or the union from peril.
And as it was sure to come up, we asked Fitzgibbon about being drunk in a House committee hearing in February. He called it “a very stupid mistake” and his “worst ever day at work” and hoped it wouldn’t overshadow his accomplishments. We don’t think it did.
Besides, he has no real challenger. Mary Anito, a small business owner, engineer, and mom, seems to be running because she believes Fitzgibbon ignored her concerns about education funding when she visited his office. Sorry about that, Anito, but we didn’t enjoy listening to you, either. Vote Fitzgibbon.
Legislative District No. 37
State Senator
Chipalo Street
With State Senator Rebecca Saldaña ditching this seat to run for King County Council, the district’s Rep. Chipalo Street is a predictable progressive vote who is safe to move over to the Senate. We like the guy despite his afflictions of techworker and landlord and have endorsed him multiple times. Seemingly everyone else is endorsing him this time, scaring off serious contenders.
Then there’s political newcomer and community organizer Tatiana Brown. We don’t dislike Brown, she just doesn’t know enough yet. Like, say, don’t challenge a guy who’s doing a good job for a seat in the upper house in a district he already represents without some serious critiques or, we don’t know, a body in his backyard. We’d like to see Brown stay in politics, and to polish her perspectives on affordability and environmental justice into policy positions, but she should consider running for a race she can win next time.
Street is plain good. He’s used his knowledge of tech and landlordoms to fight against their lobbies in Olympia. What most impressed the SECB was his comprehensive understanding of the political terrain: Street intimately understands the financial predicament the state finds itself in, and we trust his commitment to chart the way through with progressive taxation rather than austerity or slopulist tax cuts. More notably, Street showed up two weeks after the birth of his child, and managed to remain awake throughout the entire increasingly hot, un-airconditioned meeting. He did however present us with his bribe, “milk punch” bottles, before clarifying that the milk was not sourced from within the family, so to speak. It was spiked! Vote Street.
Legislative District No. 37
State Representative Position No. 1
Kelabe Tewolde
Unlike most of the progressive newcomers challenging Democratic incumbents this cycle, Kelabe Tewolde picked the right race. Rep. Sharon Tomiko Santos is not quarterbacking crucially transformative long-term legislation on the 10-yard line. She’s boring, unimaginative, and ripe for replacement.
As chair of the House Education Committee, Tomiko Santos has long been a dominant voice in setting state education policy and securing funding. This is not a flex, considering the poor state of Washington’s public education system. Her title is more of an albatross than a medal. Tomiko Santos touts a dusty progressive record, and a reactionary present, opposing Congressional redistricting and rent control.
That her most progressive achievements are behind her is reflected in her campaign finance disclosures, which, as of publication, show most donors are political action committees and businesses including tobacco and vape titan Altria, a company despised by educators, parents, and the medical community.
Tewolde doesn’t have the same kind of baggage as Tomiko Santos, and even as a first-time candidate he’s out fundraised her from individual donors, not corporations and PACs.
He may be politically inexperienced, but he knows schools. It wasn’t long ago that he was a student in Seattle, both in public and private schools, and is now a teacher. He sees the system’s shortcomings every day.
He’ll be a reliable vote on the progressive priorities the district needs in the years to come, and though he’s a fresh face in politics, his internships in US Sen. Patty Murray’s Seattle and Washington DC offices mean he knows how to talk the talk. We think he deserves a chance to walk the walk. Vote Tewolde.
Legislative District No. 37
State Representative Position No. 2
Jaelynn Scott
Jaelynn Scott is going to be the 37th District’s next representative in the Washington State House of Representatives whether we like it or not, but luckily we do like it!
Scott has spent the past six years as executive director of the Lavender Rights Project, the Seattle-based Black transfeminist organization that helped craft the federal Trans Bill of Rights that Seattle’s own Rep. Pramila Jayapal has been pushing in Congress since 2022. If elected, she’d make history as the first openly trans person serving in the Washington State Legislature.
While Scott technically has an opponent in the race, Evon McCorkle, her challenger hasn’t raised a single dollar or responded to The Stranger’s interview requests, and you don’t need a degree in gambling to know how this race is gonna shake out.
The lack of more serious challengers is downstream of the fact that Scott has hoovered up all the endorsements that matter. Everyone from Jayapal and US Sen. Bernie Sanders to the seat’s outgoing representative, Chipalo Street, is backing her.
The 37th is a district reliable for delivering candidates with the political acumen to back up their progressive bona fides and pass policies good for working people in Olympia, and it’s what we expect Scott to do. She says her first priority in the legislature is housing affordability, and she passed our smell tests on Congressional redistricting, a data center moratorium, and rent control.
Scott is a little cagey on supporting a graduated income tax, but as Democrats tailor their messaging on progressive taxation by defending the Millionaires Tax we expect the doubters to fall in line by the time it really matters. Vote Scott.
Legislative District No. 43
State Senator
Jamie Pedersen
For years we’ve asked candidates how they were going to upend our terrible tax system so we aren’t so broke. There’s one guy who’s actually doing it. And we’d be hypocritical numbskulls if we voted him out of office.
Jamie Pedersen is the most progressive Senate majority leader in state history, and he’s in the middle of a crusade to completely reform the second-most regressive tax structure in the country. All of our progressive priorities rely on increased cashflow. The Millionaires Tax isn’t going to do it on its own; neither will the Well Washington Fund, Rep. Shaun Scott’s statewide payroll tax the Legislature killed last year (and Pedersen was no help, we’ll add).
But with big legislative priorities, Pedersen is usually fixed on a master plan. The most important feature of the Millionaires Tax is not the revenue it could generate, but that it is designed to blow up the 1933 State Supreme Court decision that deemed a graduated income tax unconstitutional. If that works, it opens the door for more good shit.
Don’t get us wrong, Pedersen is not a progressive golden boy. His donors are awful—it’s hard to find a company that doesn’t support Pedersen—but he is the party leader and wealthy corporations like to fish for support.
First-time candidate and former communications director for Working Washington Hannah Sabio-Howell is a good candidate, though she’s not spectacular. Sabio-Howell couldn’t say exactly how Pedersen made Washington a corporate paradise, or provide a concrete explanation for how she’d make it a corporate hell, or even improve the situation somewhat. Four separate times during our meeting, she dodged by falling back on generic class-war tropes, even when it did not make any sense. She acknowledged Pedersen leads the most progressive Senate caucus in the state’s history, and couldn’t provide a convincing reason for why we should unseat him and potentially open the seat for a less progressive party leader to take his place. Plainly put, Sabio-Howell’s decision to run in this race threatens a right-ward shift in the caucus at a pivotal political moment. It’s also taken money away from swing districts.
If Sabio-Howell ran for any other seat (pro-tip, try the House first, and not in Capitol Hill?), we’d likely have endorsed her. She’s passionate and intelligent. There are plenty of lackluster Dems she’d beat handily. And if Pedersen weren’t the party leader, he’d have a target someone more qualified could hit. He’s an incrementalist, he’s too passive, and his personal progressive vision for the state may be 10 years out of date. But Sabio-Howell did run in this district, and Pedersen is the party leader, and we can’t endanger the state’s most important legislative priority for someone who says what we want to hear. Vote Pedersen.
Legislative District No. 43
State Representative Position No. 1
Nicole Macri
Nicole Macri was one of the last state-level candidates to enter our dungeon, and maybe it’s recency bias, but she was also one of the best. It’s refreshing to talk to an intelligent, competent legislator with a proven track record of progressive policymaking.
Macri is a committee queen with a talent for crafting tight, effective legislation. Last year, she passed a bill to standardize training and certification requirements for long-term care workers who provide in-home care for family, created a state Medicaid access program designed to increase healthcare reimbursement rates, and a first-in-the-nation policy that allowed trans people to stock up on months of hormones at a time.
As vice chair of the House Appropriations Committee, she was party to last session’s funding cuts, but she is not a fan of austerity. She’s for progressive taxation, and pushed for a county payroll tax before Seattle passed JumpStart. Oh, and she manages to do all this with a leadership role at Seattle’s Downtown Emergency Services Center (DESC). Her hobby is work, she said. Sad, but we won’t complain.
Her challenger Alby Clendennin (the IV) is a resident director at University of Washington. He touted his activism, but hasn’t done any in two years (has anything happened since 2024?). He did not know the basics of state government and served us more helpings of word salad than we could stomach. If you’re serious about challenging corporate interests, choose a better mark. Vote Macri.
Legislative District No. 46
State Representative Position No. 1
Will Dreher
Incumbent Rep. Gerry Pollet has been in office long enough for the electorate’s progressive demands to outpace what he’s willing to deliver. So we turn to two white male self-styled progressives with Harvard Law degrees: Will Dreher, an attorney from an elite family back east—his father was a top environmental lawyer for the Clinton and Obama administrations—and Ron Davis, a loud YIMBY-aligned tech entrepreneur and failed City Council candidate.
Only one is likely to make it through the primary and we think it should be Dreher. Not only does he have that same urbanist-y crunch we like about Davis, his career trajectory shows he puts his money where his mouth is. Except for the time he drank baby blood with US Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh. Just kidding.
Davis tried hard to paint Dreher to the SECB as unprincipled for clerking for Kavanaugh when Kavanaugh was a circuit court judge, and then writing a letter of support for his Supreme Court nomination. Is he a secret fascist? No.
Writing a letter of support for a Justice is not the same as a political endorsement, as Davis has suggested, because clerks are expected to write their letters for the judges they clerked for and clerks don’t get to pick who they work for in the first place. They’re lucky to be in the room. This also occurred before Kavanaugh was credibly accused of sexual assault; when those allegations became public, Dreher was one of only three clerks who wrote to the Senate Committee on the Judiciary to say their former boss should be investigated by the FBI, and that their letters should not be used to defend Kavanaugh from accusations. In doing so, Dreher sacrificed a promising career as appellate lawyer, as attorneys who impugn a Supreme Court justice on the record are considered risky choices to appeal cases to the nation’s highest court. At least until Kavanaugh is off the court. He’s 61.
Candidates all the way down to county dogcatcher promise the SECB they’ll punish Trump’s goons, but Dreher has the rare distinction of having prosecuted 25 January 6th insurrectionists. That work made it impossible to stay with the US Department of Justice after Trump was reelected and absolved his footsoldiers. Like Seattle City Attorney Erika Evans, who worked with him in the US Attorney’s Office and is now endorsing him, Dreher parachuted into friendly territory. These days he’s at a Seattle law firm suing Apple for AI copyright infringement, which is more than most other candidates who have read the polling on AI and data centers and are running on opposing tech can muster, including Davis.
He’s a fed, but we think he should be our fed. Let’s unleash this blue-blooded Yankee on the billionaire tech lobby that writes our laws in Olympia. Vote Dreher.
COUNTY
Assessor
Rob Foxcurran
Perhaps you only heard about the illustrious job of King County Assessor, the person who assesses property values in King County, after John Arthur Wilson (JAW) broke a no-contact order with his ex, persuaded a judge to remove his ankle monitor, and then posted gloating, shirtless photos while soaking in his hot tub. Stalking charges were dropped in mid-June. He isn’t running again. Heartbreaking.
For the first time in 10 years, the seat is open. A trio of people you wouldn’t want to be stuck with at a dinner party are vying for the seat. It’s an important job. The assessment of property value influences how much property tax someone pays, and because Washington doesn’t have an income tax, we use those property taxes to fund everything from libraries to EMTs. We don’t want the poor paying too much, or the rich paying too little, or an assessment to push someone on fixed income from their home.
Rob Foxcurran is the consummate property assessment nerd, and grew up here—he’s a fifth generation Seattleite. He’s also the shop steward for the city workers’ union, PROTEC17. He plans to advocate for programs that keep people from being taxed out of their neighborhood, like tying property tax to income. And he’s committed to using this office to help the region expand affordable housing. He also promised to never post a shirtless selfie from a hot tub—he doesn’t have one. We liked him enough to overlook his Monopoly Man mustache and the Patagonia vest he wore in our sweltering conference room.
Shoreline Councilmember Chris Roberts is stacked with endorsements, but he doesn’t have any experience that’s relevant to the role, and we got the impression that he only ran for this position because someone asked him to.
And then there’s Al Dams, the chief assistant county assessor who’s been running the office in Wilson’s absence. He showed up late in his King County Assessor’s office polo (instead of the Alexander Hamilton costume he wanted to wear) and the first thing he asked us was, “Have you ever had kidney stones?” He’s a longtime county worker, and oldtime punk rocker, who’s been all over: Public Works, Parks, Animal Control, and now the Assessor’s Office. Dams detested his boss’s behavior and says he has been trying to cobble together office morale. But Dams hasn’t been campaigning very much. He provided an explanation by way of pulling down his collar to reveal a scar stretching the length of his sternum. “I died,” Dams said, “so I had this surgery and I had my valve replaced.” He encouraged everyone—that means you, dear reader—to get an echocardiogram. While we loved Dams and think the County Assessor’s office would be in good hands if he won this election, we also think the office deserves a fresh start after the last scandal-ridden administration. We look forward to seeing JAW on his new Bravo original show, How Not To With John Arthur Wilson. Vote Foxcurran.
Metropolitan King County
Council District No. 2
Rebecca Saldaña
Rebecca Saldaña has one of the strongest progressive records in the last decade of Washington politics. She championed the Domestic Workers Bill of Rights, stronger wage theft enforcement, unemployment insurance for striking workers, and one of the best paid family and medical leave programs in the country. And if a few of her dirtbag colleagues had supported it, farm workers may have gained collective bargaining rights in this state, a default in a sane society.
We’d clone Rebecca Saldaña if we could, but we’ll have to settle for electing her to Executive Girmay Zahilay’s old County Council seat.
She wants to improve jail conditions and diversion programs (which is great, because jails are three quarters of the County’s general fund). She wants to expand legal defense for immigrants in the county. And she gives a damn about getting more women of color into local government (she was the State Senate’s only one when she got there).
Her opponent, Toshiko Hasegawa, is a Port of Seattle commissioner, and she shares a lot of the same values as Saldaña. The progressive-on-progressive violence is hard to watch: At our meeting, Saldaña took one look at Hasegawa’s “Save Graham Street Station” shirt and remarked that she wanted one, but her kids wouldn’t let her wear it because it was so clearly AI-generated. A quiet, yet cutting strike. Hasegawa spent most of the meeting sitting close to the table, her arms folded on her midsection, hiding as much of the shirt as possible.
To be clear, Hasegawa wouldn’t be a bad pick for this seat. As a port commissioner, she barred any expansion of immigration police activity on Portland, and introduced an order that provides civil rights education to anyone working on Port property. She’s done a lot in a typically sleepy political role. But the clumsy shots Hasegawa took at Saldaña’s record not only missed, they ricocheted, making her look amateurish and even greener than she was. When Hasegawa told us something she would do, Saldaña would tell us something she’d already done. The whole situation made us wonder why Hasegawa would enter the race months after Saldaña had already declared her candidacy. Vote Saldaña.
Metropolitan King County
Council District No. 8
Teresa Mosqueda
We love Teresa Mosqueda and her long list of priorities: housing, workers rights, creating a safety net for the more than 200,000 people that are about to lose access to Medicaid, and protecting the region from the Trump administration. Though dozens of progressives marched through our office with the same priorities this season, Mosqueda has been in local government long enough to know which levers to pull.
When we asked what the county’s highest priority will be next year, she said it needed to “step into the housing arena with both feet.” She supports a slow transition away from the King County Regional Homelessness Authority once we’ve shored up federal funding and built the infrastructure to support county and city programs. She also supports a county-level housing levy to push affordable housing with adequate administrative funding so it functions.
Mosqueda’s opponents are former Seattle City Council legislative aide and self-described “small-L liberal” Nick Duda who didn’t show up to our meeting, and the eternal candidate Mia Jacobson, who is running for a representative position to end representative democracy for a third time. Jacobson believes we should have “an open public forum parallel to every committee, and an interactive digital map” that allows the public to weigh in on all issues in real time, 24 hours a day. We know that because that was her answer to every question we asked. We would love her to stop running. Vote Mosqueda.
STATE SUPREME COURT
Supreme Court
Justice Position No. 1
Colleen Melody
Justice Colleen Melody, the only choice for this seat, is buckwild for civil rights. She led the Civil Rights Division at the state attorney general’s office when it was first formed. She fought and won cases against Trump’s Muslim travel ban, an abortion pill ban, the trans military ban; and the attempts to kill birthright citizenship and the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program (DACA). Remember when the state sued the Northwest Detention Center for paying inmates $1 an hour for their labor? That was her office’s case, and they won.
Melody’s knowledge impressed us: statewide court access issues, the public defense funding crisis and ways the Court can ameliorate it, racial bias in jury selection, the need for therapeutic courts, and the best places to sit at Mariners games.
She answered our questions perfectly, while her only opponent that bothered to show up, family law attorney Laura Christensen Colberg, squirmed over softballs like “Who is your favorite US Supreme Court Justice?” She couldn’t name one because, by her own admission, she wasn’t paying attention. Her heroes were outside the court system. When asked who they were, she couldn’t name a single person other than herself. By email, she clarified a few Survivor contestants could fit the bill. We don’t know which justice absentee candidate Scott Edwards loves, but as he fought the state capital gains tax in court, probably a shitty one. Melody’s favorite Justice is Elena Kagan.
The high point of our meeting was watching Melody’s soul leave her body when Christensen Colberg said there was no racial bias in the courts. “Everyone is doing their very best to put blinders on,” she said before Melody explained the multitudinous ways racial bias infects the court system. Thinking she had a gotcha, Christensen Colberg asked Melody to name these racists. Melody said okay, and provided several examples.
Christensen Colberg knows nothing. We are certain Melody knows just about everything. Vote Melody.
Supreme Court
Justice Position No. 3
Mike Diaz
When we emailed the judges seeking our endorsement for retiring Justice Raquel Montoya-Lewis’s seat, Court of Appeals Judge Mike Diaz said he was CCing “the Michaels.” Two campaign consultants both named Michael, working for a Mike? There should be a law against such blatant collusion.
We kid, we kid. Diaz knows the law inside and out and there is nothing in there against Michaels helping Mikes. Diaz has 25 years of legal experience, including a decade as a federal civil rights lawyer—the role he held when he put the Seattle Police Department under a federal consent decree for the murder of Indigenous Nuu-chah-nulth woodcarver John T. Williams. He’s in his ninth year of judging and now serves on the Court of Appeals where he authored opinions overwhelmingly supporting workers, challenging corporations, and protecting civil rights.
To bribe us, Diaz brought a full three-course Peruvian meal. King County Superior Court Judge Jaime Hawk, toting Round Table pizzas—her first job!—also showed up. She was a public defender, then legal strategy director at the WA Campaign for Smart Justice at the ACLU of Washington. Mason County Superior Court Judge David Stevens, who admires Samuel Alito, did not respond to our invitation.
Diaz and Hawk are both highly qualified judges with sexy POVs. Both of their interpretations of the law, and their regard for the people it affects, are similar. They knew their ideological similarity, and compensated with lowly political mud games. How could you, Michaels? Let the judges judge the law, not each other.
While we enjoyed speaking with Hawk (and we are sorry we mistook your romantic partner’s mother for his wife while reading through your political donations), Diaz’s breadth of legal experience, years co-chairing the Interpreter and Language Access Commission, and expertise in state constitutional law made him our choice. Vote Diaz.
Supreme Court
Justice Position No. 4
Ian Birk
The SECB asked the Supreme Court candidates to define “property,” to see if they’ll hang themselves with an answer that would reveal their opinion about a possible case regarding the state’s Millionaires Tax, as “property” is the central question of the case. Typically, the candidates talk around it. State Court of Appeals Judge Ian Birk looked at us across the table in his stiff, dry Scandinavian way and said, “I don’t think so.”
He is not one to be fooled. He spent 20 years as a lawyer mostly suing insurance companies on behalf of individuals and small businesses. Four years ago, Governor Jay Inslee appointed him to the Washington State Court of Appeals. And with good reason. He is precise and analytical. When Birk speaks, you can see the depth of his thinking. Especially around fairness, access to the courts, and the Court’s role in addressing racial inequities and mass incarceration. When he picked us and our questions apart, we thought, “this is exactly the person you’d want sitting on our State Supreme Court.” He’s no-nonsense, with zero interest in political games or in flattering the SECB. There is only the law, and its fair application for all people. He lives for this and treats it as a sacred responsibility. It was inspiring.
His opponent, Judge Sean O’Donnell also gave strong answers on racial justice, regulating the use of artificial intelligence in the courts, and improving access to public defense in civil cases, but they were not as robust as Birk’s answers. There were also two problems. Former state attorney general Rob McKenna, who is trying to flip the court for conservatives, donated to his campaign, and cops have donated to him for years. This is not surprising. O’Donnell was a prosecutor. Cops like cops. And O’Donnell helped put away Gary Ridgway, the Green River Killer, a guy we don’t agree with. We don’t get the sense he’s a conservative psy-op, but we don’t have to wring our hands over it because Birk was better anyway. Vote Birk.
[Editor’s note: This race will not appear on the primary ballot, but will be in the general. We’ll remind you.]
Supreme Court
Justice Position No. 5
Theo Angelis
Shady Democratic Governor Bob Ferguson handpicked attorney Theo Angelis for the Court this spring. This appointee has a broad, 25-year legal career spanning civil law, family law, and technology. He has advocated for immigrants and won (like in the class action lawsuit he brought against the federal government for failing to provide legal representation in deportation proceedings against immigrant children). Angelis lacks judicial experience aside from his few months on the Court, but he demonstrated an exhaustive knowledge of the state constitution and Court precedent that did not set off our highly sensitive bullshit detectors.
We could not say the same for retired judge Dave Larson. While we appreciated his self-deprecating sense of humor, Larson is one of those walking Elks Lodges who call their conservatism “common sense.” He denounced the lower, Court-enacted caseload standards for public defenders and said the Blake decision, which invalidated the state’s simple drug possession charges and has vacated over 150,000 cases so far, “really set us back.” He insisted he wasn’t a tool for former State Attorney General Rob McKenna or hedge fund millionaire Brian Heywood, even though their ghoulish coalition, Project 42, funneled money into his last campaign through the conservative Citizen Action Defense Fund. What else could be hiding up his robe sleeves, besides a respectable tight five?
We were charmed by Thurston County Superior Court Judge Sharonda Amamilo, and her time as a public defender, her interest in juvenile justice, and trial judge experience, but unconvinced she had as in-depth an understanding of constitutional law. Amamilo could not confidently name a specific case when asked about impactful state Supreme Court rulings. Meanwhile, appellate advocate Greg Miller did not know that mass incarceration was a problem and we had to explain the prison industrial complex to him. He can make a mean Irish soda bread, though!
Angelis was the most thoughtful about the Court’s role. He insisted we pay jurors more while also building up childcare centers to make serving on juries easier for the public. He also checked Larson’s bullshit when Larson said the Legislature, not the courts, should decide civil matters like gay marriage. That’s what Washington did, and famously, nobody had any issues with that! “When’s the last time that anybody had a protest about same-sex marriage?” Larson said. Angelis jumped in to say that the court should protect people’s rights because we can’t always trust legislators to do that. Vote Angelis.
Supreme Court
Justice Position No. 7
Debra L. Stephens
We would be out of our goddamn minds if we did not keep Chief Justice Debra L. Stephens around for six more years. We would keep her around forever if the Court didn’t kick its 75-year-old members to the curb (rightly so). If reelected, she’d become the Court’s senior member.
Stephens loves the wonky, non-flashy work of the Court, like modifying judicial rules to expand court access, and steering the Court through its Zoom-era during COVID. Speaking of 2020, under her guidance, the Court wrote an open letter about the role the judicial system plays in perpetuating racial justice. When we asked judicial candidates this election cycle for the most impactful recent Washington State Supreme decisions, many picked the McCleary decision, which mandated that the state must fully fund public education. Stephens authored it.
Stephens considers cases through the lens that “the law is a collection of rules and values based on our understanding about human behavior, about right and wrong, and culpability, and responsibility.” Stephens is challenged by a rogues’ gallery of unserious Republicans, such as the former public defender and right-wing automaton Karim Merchant, the websiteless financial executive and attorney Todd Bloom, and David Shelvey, who believes T. rexes and kangaroos are related because they both have small arms. (He’s not a scientist.) Vote Stephens.
DISTRICT COURT
King County District Court West
Electoral District Judge Position No. 1
Bardi Martin
County District Court judges sweat the small stuff, presiding over traffic infractions, criminal misdemeanors, small claims, and many people who have never stepped foot in a courtroom. They may be scared, nervous, confused, or embarrassed, and they rarely have legal representation. Bardi Martin and Nyjat Rose-Akins displayed the qualities we’d like to see on the bench. But we felt Martin had the edge.
He was adopted and grew up in King County, where he later worked as a public defender. He was unanimously appointed to the judge position in January after his predecessor retired.
Rose-Akins is currently a judge pro tem bopping from courtroom to courtroom like a substitute teacher, and was a prosecutor in the Seattle City Attorney’s office for over a decade. When she ran for Municipal Court Judge Position No. 7 in 2022, the SECB did not like that Rose-Akins would not speak ill of her then-boss, Republican City Attorney Ann Davison, which would’ve been a fun, fast, and exciting way to get fired. No longer under Davison’s claws, Rose-Akins was willing to say she didn’t support Davison’s decision to murder Community Court in cold blood. But that was about it. “Some things that I wouldn’t necessarily agree with, but as a judge I don’t have all the facts,” she said. He was a public defender, she was a prosecutor. Can we make it any more obvious?
Did we mention Martin was the bassist for Candlebox in the ’90s? Sadly, he wouldn’t give us any good Eddie Vedder gossip. Vote Martin.
[Editor’s note: This race will not appear on the primary ballot, but will be in the general. We’ll remind you.]
City
City of Seattle
Council District No. 5
Nilu Jenks
We’re starving for more progressive leadership on the Seattle City Council dais, and we’re finally ready, as a society, to wave a permanent goodbye to Debora Juarez and wave hello to Nilu Jenks. Again. We’re unenthused, but she’s better than Julie Kang.
Jenks has most of the right positions and a solid base of support from Seattle progressives. She’s done the work in the sense that when she lost the race for this seat in 2023, and didn’t get the City Council appointment when Cathy Moore resigned, she still continued to dream of D5. Before she moved to Seattle, Jenks helped organize the nation’s largest gun buyback program in Northern California. She believes her nonprofit day job advancing ranked choice voting in Washington will be important on council when the state implements RCV next year.
We’re not convinced it will, but we didn’t have to be: Jenks is the one D5 candidate who understands how city government works. She’s savvy about zoning and density, which will come in handy as the council revises the Seattle Comprehensive Plan. She wants a tax on short-term rentals, a nuisance tax on vacant properties, and a token tax on AI. Last time she ran, she told the SECB she wouldn’t raise the JumpStart payroll tax during a recession. Jenks maintains that position. Hmm.
Jenks tripped on data centers, speaking about them as if they were an inevitability we could control by forcing companies to pay for the strain they put on the electric grid. She also insisted they’d create jobs. As if.
But Kang was worse on AI and everything else. She threw progressive policy lingo in our faces to distract from the steady thump of her big business heart. When we asked her about building affordable housing, adding shelter beds, and police surveillance—really any question that put business and people at odds—she gave mushy answers. We had no idea how she felt, or what she may vote for.
Silas James is nice, kind, and, much to our disappointment, vaguely informed. But he didn’t understand what the King County Regional Homelessness Authority does. That was disqualifying. We’d like
to see James run again when he’s a bit more seasoned.
Jenks is the best bet for another progressive voice on the council. Vote Jenks.
Municipal Court Judge
Position No. 5
Gabe Rothstein
Seattle Municipal Court judges handle misdemeanor and gross misdemeanor crimes. They deal with civil infractions and things like traffic tickets. Many of the people they interact with don’t have attorneys. Which is why we think Gabe Rothstein is the right guy for the job. He is a big-hearted, career public defender with the friendly, theatrical air of a carnival barker, who believes in recovery, redemption, and giving second chances.
He works after hours at the Youth Access to Counsel Line, which provides minors with access to counsel 24/7, serves on the board of directors for the Holman Recovery Center, and works as a judge pro tem in the King County Municipal Court.
We believe he will serve people with empathy and respect. We’re less certain Garmon Newsom, the Burien City Attorney who defended the city’s “camping ban” and fought minimum wage increases, would do the same.
In a January 2025 Burien City Council meeting, Garmon insisted that threatening homeless people with arrest would give them an “incentive to actually accept the offer of shelter, treatment, and housing.” Burien has only two shelters: one for families and one for women, and the city itself recognizes there are “no designated spaces for single men, youth, or couples.” In 2025, Newsom also fought tooth and nail against the voter-approved minimum wage increase, going so far as to sue the organizers behind the ballot measure. Attorneys are supposed to duke it out for their clients, but gross! Attorney Lindsay Calkins was at our meeting, but withdrew from the race for personal reasons. Vote Rothstein.
City of Seattle Proposition No. 1
Yes
Of course we’re going to tell you to vote yes on the Seattle Public Library Levy Renewal. A metropolis of sapiosexuals, Seattle is one of UNESCO’s 53 Cities of Literature, and ranked 10th in the world for ebook checkouts (Libbyheads rise) last year. We love books, and we love spending money on those books. We don’t love that libraries have become a catch-all social services center for all the other problems our city and state are neglecting to solve, but that’s just another compelling reason to support this levy. (Gee willikers, it seems our society would improve somewhat if it had any other sources of revenue.)
As we’re sure you’re bored of hearing, Washington has the second-most regressive tax structure in the nation, and there isn’t enough money for many of our basic services. Until we crack the income tax code, we need levies. And for years, SPL has relied on a property tax levy to fill in the city’s budget gaps. Voters passed the first library levy in 2012 and a second one in 2019. This third levy is a seven-year, $480 million investment to cover a third of SPL’s operating budget. That’s almost double the size of the last one, and size matters, whatever your sexual partner may say. It would come from a modest property income tax increase of 23 cents per $1,000 of assessed property value, an average of $193 per year. Cut out the blueberry muffin-flavored coffee beverages and you’ll be totally fine.
If voters approve Proposition 1, branches will keep operating as normal, with a few added perks like increased on-site community resources and off-site programming.
This isn’t a lavish windfall. This is what it costs to keep the lights on and keep our libraries open, which still isn’t seven days a week across all branches.
If voters don’t approve this levy, crack open The Divine Comedy—we’ll all be in Hell. But you better have a copy at home because the consequences could include closing libraries, cutting library hours, laying off staff, and decimating the collections budget. “No, we don’t have the new gay hockey romance, it was the will of the voters.”
Thank your local homeowner and vote yes on Proposition 1.
